Silicon Designs Introduces Lower-Cost MEMS Accelerometer Modules for Inertial Navigation

Offering Industry Standard Form Factor and Pin-Compatibility with Quartz-Based Accelerometers

October 17, 2018 – Kirkland, Washington, USA - Silicon Designs, Inc., an ISO9001:2015 certified, 100% U.S. veteran-owned, leading designer and manufacturer of rugged industrial-grade MEMS capacitive accelerometer chips, modules, and supporting data acquisition, today introduced its Model 2227-025, the first in a planned family of high-performance, lower-cost MEMS accelerometer modules for inertial navigation and tilt applications (non-ITAR).

The Model 2227-025 has both an industry standard form factor and pin compatibility with many of the quartz-based accelerometers currently used in these applications. This allows the Model 2227-025 to serve as both a lower-cost alternative and direct drop-in replacement for many industry quartz-based inertial navigation accelerometers.

The rugged design of the Model 2227-025 MEMS accelerometer module combines two patented, capacitive, silicon sense elements (U.S. Patent Number 4,736,629), together with a precision, custom CMOS integrated circuit, in a compact, low mass, hermetically sealed LCC package. These ±25 g modules are assembled on a high-temperature open printed circuit board (PCB) with a circuit that converts the differential output voltage of the MEMS accelerometer into a current directly proportional to the amount of applied acceleration.  This design allows the Model 2227-025 to achieve the low-noise, high-stability, long-term repeatability and low power needed for many of today’s inertial navigation applications. Final testing is conducted on a temperature-tumble-system, thereby providing thermal calibration parameters that simplify accelerometer use with the customer’s own real-time temperature compensation and modeling software.

Test samples of the Model 2227-025 are immediately available for customer evaluation in North America and the United Kingdom. Two additional g-ranges, to be sold as the Model 2227-010 (±10 g) and Model 2227-050 (±50 g), respectively, have anticipated availability starting in January 2019.

Founded in 1983, Silicon Designs has built a strong industry pedigree for excellence in MEMS capacitive accelerometers for zero-to-medium frequency instrumentation requirements. From its earliest days, then-developing accelerometers for the U.S. Navy under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant award, Silicon Designs has long centered its R&D efforts around continuous design and quality improvement initiatives. At the time of its founding, industrial-grade accelerometers were bulky, fragile and costly. The engineering team at Silicon Designs listened to the needs of customers who required more compact, sensitive, rugged and reasonably priced MEMS capacitive accelerometer modules and chips with higher performance. Resulting product lines were designed and built by Silicon Designs to exceed customer expectations. The company has continued to grow steadily over the years, with its business philosophies of “make it better, stronger, smaller and less expensive” and “let the customer drive R&D” remaining consistent to this day. Silicon Designs is an ISO9001:2015 certified veteran-owned small business. For more information about the Model 2227-025 MEMS accelerometer for inertial navigation, visit www.SiliconDesigns.com/2227.